Where is the Champions League final likely to be won and lost on Saturday night? Guest writer Andrew Beasley has pored over the statistics to assess the key areas for each team in Kiev…

Real Madrid are the current kings of Europe, and not just because they are the holders of the Champions League. Zinedine Zidane’s side will play in their fourth final in five seasons when they face Liverpool in Kiev on Saturday, and they have won their previous three.

In fact, Real have won their last six finals stretching back to 1998, meaning the last team to defeat them in Europe’s top match were Liverpool. Alan Kennedy scored the only goal of the game in Paris in 1981, as Bob Paisley’s Reds won their third European Cup.

A nice omen for Saturday, perhaps, but the result of a match from almost 40 years ago has no bearing on this encounter. We need to look at more recent statistics to get a feel for the strengths and weaknesses of the current Real side, and to see how they match up to Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool.

The most obvious similarity between the teams is their goalscoring capabilities. Liverpool and Real have both netted 124 goals in their 50 league and Champions League matches in 2017-18. In the five previous meetings between the sides, one team has failed to score, but with the firepower available to both this doesn’t look a likely outcome in Kiev.

Liverpool and Real Madrid are poised to meet for the sixth time when they contest the Champions League final in Kiev on May 26.

Despite boasting an incredible 17 European Cups between them, fixtures pitting the two clubs against each other remain a relatively rare occurrence.

The Reds currently lead the head-to-head record, with three victories to Real’s two, and we are guaranteed to have another outright winner in the Ukrainian capital on Saturday night.

Take a look back at the sides’ five previous clashes below.

Benzema bags Bernabeu winner

Liverpool’s last appearance in the Champions League threw up a glamorous group-stage meeting with the competition’s most successful team.

But, with Brendan Rodgers’ side having endured a poor start to the Premier League season and an Anfield clash with league leaders Chelsea on the horizon, the boss made seven changes to his starting XI for this trip to Spain.

In the absence of rested captain Steven Gerrard, the Reds produced a battling performance in the Santiago Bernabeu but were ultimately undone by Karim Benzema’s early tap-in.

Liverpool Football Club is delighted to confirm that main sponsor Standard Chartered will continue to be front of shirt for the next four years.

The renewal of the deal will see the club’s relationship with the bank extend to the end of the 2022-23 season. The partnership began in 2010, making it the second-longest sponsorship deal in Reds history.

Since it began working together with the club, Standard Chartered has reached more than 37million people across LFC platforms highlighting the UN’s Global Goals programme, had more than 4,000 children participate in its soccer clinics, and for its annual ‘Perfect Match’ game – where LFC players swap the Standard Chartered logo on their shirts for the Seeing is Believing logo – fans have helped to raised almost USD 500,000 to tackle avoidable blindness.

The partnership has also reached almost 140,000 Reds supporters with LFC World, presented by Standard Chartered – an interactive fan experience which began in 2016 and brings fans around the world a little closer to Anfield. LFC World has visited seven destinations across the last two seasons, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Mumbai, Jakarta and, most recently, Dubai.

Standard Chartered has also donated nearly 500 match tickets to the local community through Liverpool FC’s Red Neighbours programme over the last two seasons.

Billy Hogan, managing director and chief commercial officer at LFC, said: “As a club we’re very proud to have Standard Chartered renew their relationship for another four years. Our connection runs deep, it means more than just sponsorship, from the outset it has been about working together with the club and our communities and supporters around the world.

When Jordan Henderson leads Liverpool out onto the NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium pitch on Saturday evening, he will do so sure that he captains the most unified squad he has ever been part of.

Kiev is the location for this weekend’s Champions League final, which will see the Reds take on Real Madrid for the right to be crowned winners of European football’s elite club competition.

Liverpool have not reached this stage since 2007 – four years before Henderson’s Anfield career began and eight prior to him succeeding Steven Gerrard as the club’s skipper.

And the England international has explained how their thrilling journey this season has been driven by a strong sense of collectiveness among Jürgen Klopp’s players.

“I see great togetherness, I think about how well they have done, from the first day of pre-season how well they have worked – they all deserve to be in this position to play in a Champions League final,” Henderson told Liverpoolfc.com, after being asked what he sees when he looks around the Reds’ dressing room.

“Every single day in training throughout the season they have given everything and you get your rewards at the end of it.

“To play in a Champions League final is a dream for everyone but you want to remember it for the right reasons and that’s because you’ve won it, so like I say we’ve got to keep going, keep working hard and give everything when the time comes.